Choosing A Computer

343_guilty_spark343_guilty_spark Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17462Members
edited July 2004 in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">How many of these threads exist?</div> Decided to save up for a new computer, right now money isnt a issue. I have been looking for a few good places to buy a computer and so far i found Alienware and overclockers so if you have a site to recommend that sells computers to the UK and are customisable please list them. It may also help to note that i have never built a computer in my life so having the computer shipped together would help alot.
I also have a few questions on what to put in the computer
1) Intel or AMD
2) ATI or Nivada (Please don't start a war here <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> )

Edit/ Anything i should change for this computer:

<b>Processor</b>- Intel? Pentium? 4 Processor 540 w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz 1MB Cache
<b>Memory</b>- 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 PC-4300 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
<b>Motherboard</b>- Intel? D925XCV Desktop Board
<b>Graphic card</b>- ATI RADEON? X800 XT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Dual Digital and TV Out
<b>Hard drive</b>- 120GB Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA 7200rpm w/ 8MB Cache
<b>CD Drive</b>- 16/48x IDE DVD-ROM Drive - Black - w/Software MPEG-2 Decoder
<b>Sound card</b>- Creative Sound Blaster? Audigy 2 6.1
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Comments

  • kuperayekuperaye Join Date: 2003-03-14 Member: 14519Members, Constellation
    edited July 2004
    make sure your mobo can handle pci express

    1) get ati because Taleshin will tell you why
    2) i like amd but it doesnt really matter
    3) if your getting a top of line computer dont get 2 sticks of 256 ram get 2 sticks of 512
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  • raz0rraz0r Join Date: 2003-07-24 Member: 18395Members
    edited July 2004
    seeing as price seems to not be an issue, i'd go for 1024 MB of RAM instead of 512.
    My personal preference is Intel over AMD and ATi over Nvidia

    [EDIT:]Overclockers looks to be damn cheap, an X800 for under 300 quid!
    seems almost too good to be true

    [EDIT2:]Damn, thats before VAT
    Still, 300-350 is dirt cheap for an X800
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  • panda_de_malheureuxpanda_de_malheureux Join Date: 2003-12-26 Member: 24775Members
    Heh if money isn't the issue, buy alienware, go right ahead. However if you want your cake and still have a decently fat wallet, I have a few suggestions. Buy ATI. Buy AMD. Get a DVD writer with the money you saved. Buy a nice case with some very good (quiet) fans, or go for watercooling. Get more storage. Get broadband.
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  • pardzhpardzh Join Date: 2002-10-25 Member: 1601Members
    You have lots and lots of money.
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  • twoflowtwoflow Singing Drunk Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 1950Members, Constellation
    Where's the best internet place to get a new PC in the UK, sorry?
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  • raz0rraz0r Join Date: 2003-07-24 Member: 18395Members
    Well <a href='http://www.overclockers.co.uk' target='_blank'>Overclockers</a> Seems to be pretty cheap, but i can't find a place where you can customize.
    But an X800Pro for ~320 Pounds, too good to miss
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  • TalesinTalesin Our own little well of hate Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7710NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators
    Things I'd change:<ul><li>Swap the P4 for an AMD Ath64, if you can. The 3200+ will slap a P4 @ 3.8GHz around like a small bratty child. And simply sit on that 3.2 that you're considering at the moment. Avoid the nForce 3 chipset (150 *or* 250) for the motherboard... the K8T800 is superior in terms of performance and stability. Recommend the ASUS K8V Deluxe. What I use in my own machine.</li><li>Different sound card. Creative Labs do not play well with the Ath64s, for reasons I've gone into in earlier threads. Also, the 'Audigy/Audigy 2' cards are for the most part relabelled SBLives. They do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING more, excepting what additional connectors they soldered on (LiveDrive, an additional speaker-out). I recommend either a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, or a Panasonic.</li><li>RAM. Get two 512 sticks, not two 256 sticks as you have listed now. 1GB of ram is EXTREMELY handy for a high-end system, as a lot of high-end games run far better with an excess... and 512 alone isn't enough. Failing that, replace the pair of 256 sticks with a single 512, to allow for greater upgradability later. You can easily drop it to PC4000 with very little performance hit. In fact, the biggest slowdown-problem you'll run into is hard drive access time.</li><li>Hard drives. See if you can get them to set you up a RAID array... either simple-striped (much faster, but if one drive of the array dies all your data is gone), or MUCH more preferable, striped with a parity drive (much faster, one extra hdd to pay for, but you can replace any of the drives without loss of data). The K8V comes with both an IDE RAID controller, and an SATA RAID controller on-board.

    Things I'd keep:</li><li>ATi x800 XT. Might see if they offer the XTPE in the PCIX format though. Performance boost, and not too much cost inflation. Also note that on current-day games, the PCIX version will tend to be SLOWER than the AGP, because they haven't had the same amount of time to tweak with the access drivers, and the extra-huge bandwidth will be nearly unutilized... nothing really needs to transfer that HUGE a clump of data just yet. Well, except Tron 2.0.... but it's good planning for the future.</li></ul>
    The CD/DVD I'd offer a cautionary word on, given that stateside you can buy DVD/CD *burners* for about $40-50 USD.
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  • Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    Random observance: All these threads suddenly started up around D3 going gold. Coincidence? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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  • TalesinTalesin Our own little well of hate Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7710NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators
    Well, the most recent ones did. ^_^ They've always meandered through. I'm tempted to write up a comprehensive guide to anyone wanting to build a machine with current-day parts, and sticky it. Unfortunately, it'd be how to build a dream machine more than anything else. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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  • kuperayekuperaye Join Date: 2003-03-14 Member: 14519Members, Constellation
    i just needed to upgrade my card for doom 3 <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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  • TequilaTequila Join Date: 2003-08-13 Member: 19660Members
    <!--QuoteBegin-Flint Paper+Jul 18 2004, 07:34 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Flint Paper @ Jul 18 2004, 07:34 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Where's the best internet place to get a new PC in the UK, sorry? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I'd just go to a local, self-owned computer business and have them build you one from the ground up.
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  • twoflowtwoflow Singing Drunk Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 1950Members, Constellation
    Question: should I never use Ebay to buy stuff like this? Compare these two PCs:

    <a href='http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14294&item=5108962105&rd=1' target='_blank'>http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...5108962105&rd=1</a>
    <a href='http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/full_systems.html' target='_blank'>http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/full_systems.html</a> (Ultima Pentium4)

    The Overclockers one is a bit better(?) but there's still a massive difference in price (comparing to the buy it now on Ebay). Would the Ebay one fall apart after a month? And is £1,498.13 a fair price for that spec?
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  • 343_guilty_spark343_guilty_spark Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17462Members
    edited July 2004
    Heh im not really getting this computer for Doom 3, thats going to my Xbox, im getting ready for S.T.A.L.K.E.R and the new warhammer game. Money isn't really a issue yet but it will come in slowly because i don't know how this selling business thing im doing with my dad will be or go like.

    Over clockers so far isnt a good choice for me because i wont know how to build the computer so im going for Alienware.

    Sticking with Intel because i was rasied by Intel.
    Keeping the ATI card because Talesin has given really good comments on them in other threads.
    Memory has been changed to 1 GB.

    Thanx for all your help so far if you have any sites in the UK that sell decent computers please post them here.

    Edit//

    Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 550 w/ HT Technology 3.4GHz 1MB Cache
    OR Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 540 w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz 1MB Cache

    Wondering is the difference between the two heavily noticeable and what gives the most bang for its money
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  • JefeJefe Join Date: 2003-04-21 Member: 15734Members, Constellation
    Get an x800 pro, it's nothing short of perfect.
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  • TalesinTalesin Our own little well of hate Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7710NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators
    Even if you were 'raised by intel', you need to look at the fact that an AMD chip running at half the clockrate can POUND a P4 around the block and down the street.

    Unless, that is, you just like the dancing rainbow spacesuit guys. :b
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  • BaconTheoryBaconTheory Join Date: 2003-09-06 Member: 20615Members
    edited July 2004
    Just a thought...why not build your own? Buy your parts from a reputable place such as NewEgg or TigerDirect and that way you can make a good system and know whats exactly whats in it. Sure it takes some skill and time but I can garuntee that you will be happy with the end result.
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  • twoflowtwoflow Singing Drunk Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 1950Members, Constellation
    <!--QuoteBegin-Flint Paper+Jul 18 2004, 08:46 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Flint Paper @ Jul 18 2004, 08:46 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Question: should I never use Ebay to buy stuff like this? Compare these two PCs:

    <a href='http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14294&item=5108962105&rd=1' target='_blank'>http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...5108962105&rd=1</a>
    <a href='http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/full_systems.html' target='_blank'>http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/full_systems.html</a> (Ultima Pentium4)

    The Overclockers one is a bit better(?) but there's still a massive difference in price (comparing to the buy it now on Ebay). Would the Ebay one fall apart after a month? And is £1,498.13 a fair price for that spec? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Anyone?
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